Green

Space Junk, an environmental disaster waiting to happen

If you think environmental pollution is only on the surface of the planet, think again. According to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordinating Committee, a global consortium that track space junk not only monitor they also track special events such as fallen debris from particular space apparatus.

Since 1957 when Soviet’s first send the Sputnik 1 to the space, more than 7,100 apparatus now orbits the planet Earth. An array of space junk produced by exploding satellites, launch rockets, and other metal fragments are littering the space. They are mostly concentrated within the first 500 miles above the earth. They travel at very high speeds and can cause serious damage to other circling space apparatus and debris hitting the earth surface. Some of the debris burn out when it enters the earth atmosphere but still can create incidences such as the one occurred closer to Falkland Islands recently. Many engineering experts still think the space junk hasn’t hit the level that requires attention by world powers. More than anything else, cleaning the space junk will be an enormous task and a costly project for the planet earth in the future. It begs international agency coordination and efforts.